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The Magic School Bus (TV series)
The Magic School Bus is a Canadian television series (although the setting takes place in America,) based on The Magic School Bus the book series by Joanna Cole. It is notable for its use of celebrity talent and combining entertainment with an educational show, according to and an article in Animation World Network by Annemarie Moody incorporating an interview with Executive Producer Deborah Forte. In Janurary 2010, it was announced that DreamWorks Pictures will film a live-action/animated version similar to Fox and Bagdasarian's Alvin and the Chipmunks. The star will be Amy Adams as the portrayal of Ms. Frizzle and George Lopez portrayal of Principal Ruhle. Premise Like the books they are based on, The Magic School Bus features the exploits of Ms. Frizzle and her class of eight children (in the original books, the class population was of a more normal, larger size of nineteen) who board a magical school bus which takes them on field trips into the solar system, under the Earth, into the human body], or to other such impossible locations. The books were written in the from the point of view of an unnamed student in "the Friz's" class. Since the Magic School Bus books present scientific facts in the form of stories in which fantastic things happen (for example, a bus turns into a spaceship, or children shrink to the size of blood cells), each book has a page at the end detailing in a humorous manner which parts of the book represented scientific fact and which were fanciful storytelling. In the books' television adaptation, this was replaced by the Producer Says segment at the end of each episode, in which the producer of the show (voiced by Malcolm-Jamal Warner of The Cosby Show fame) receives phone calls from kids complaining about how some things that happened on the show couldn't happen in real life. Celebrity voices that have been used on the show include Bebe Neuwirth, Wynona Judd, Whoopi Goldberg, and Paul Winfield. Production and airing On September 10, 1994, The Magic School Bus concept was made into an animated television series of the same name by Ellipse (France), Nelvana (Canada), and Scholastic Corporation|Scholastic Studios (USA-Canada). Forte says that adapting the books into an animated series was opportunity to help kids “learn about science in a fun way". Each episode of the show ran about 30 minutes. In the United States, the show originally aired on PBS, through South Carolina's SCETV network; it was the first fully animated series to be aired on PBS. The last episode was released on December 6, 1997, when the series was dropped to make room for more shows aimed at pre-schoolers. The Fox network also had the series on the schedule, after it acquired the rights from PBS, on October 10, 1998; it ran on that network until January 5, 2002. The Magic School Bus was also seen on TLC and Discovery Kids Today, re-runs of the series are shown on these six stations. When the The Magic School Bus is syndicated on commercial networks, the Producer Says segment at the end of each episode is cut out to make space for commercials. The Producer Says segments are only seen when the series is shown on non-commercial networks (eg. PBS and the Knowledge) and children's networks (commercial breaks are shorter). The show's theme song called "Ride on the Magic School Bus" was written by Peter Lurye and performed by rock 'n' roll legend Little Richard. The television series was released on VHS by KidVision between 1994 and 1997 and by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment between 1998 and 2002, and is currently being released on DVD by Warner Bros. Only the funding credits are retained on these DVDs. In the home video releases, all the episodes are uncut with the Producer Says segments intact. Reception Jason Fry, in a column for the online edition of the Wall Street Journal, expressed an overall appreciation for the show, but wrote that the episode The Magic School Bus Gets Programmed should have been about on the perils of internet searches and network concepts surfacing at the time, rather than an old-fashioned technology-run-amok story about the respective roles of programmer and machine (although he admitted that the episode was ten years old). Tomlin won an emmy for her role as Ms. Frizzle Episodes Season 1(1994) 101 - Gets Lost In Space (Solar System) 102 - For Lunch (Digestion) 103 - Inside Ralphie (Germs) 104 - Gets Eaten (Food Chain) 105 - Hops Home (Habitat) 106 - Meets The Rot Squad (Decomposition) 107 - All Dried Up (Desert Adaptation) 108 - IN The Haunted House (Sound) 109 - Gets Ready, Set, Dough (Kitchen Chemistry) 110 - Plays Ball (Forces) 111 - Goes To Seed (Seeds) 112 - Gets Ants In His Pants (Ants) 113 - Kicks Up A Storm (Weather) Season 2 (1995) 201 - BLOWS ITS TOP (Volcanoes) 202 - FLEXES ITS MUSCLES (Body Mechanics) 203 - THE BUSASAURUS (Dinosaurs) 204 - GOING BATTY (Bats) 205 - BUTTERFLY AND THE BOG BEAST (Butterflies) 206 - WET ALL OVER (Water) 207 - IN A PICKLE (Microbes) 208 - REVVING UP (Engines) 209 - TAKING FLIGHT (Flight) 210 - GETTING ENERGIZED (Energy) 211 - OUT OF THIS WORLD (Space Rocks) 212 - COLD FEET (Warm Blooded/Cold Blooded) 213 - UPS AND DOWNS (Floating and Sinking) Season 3 (1996) 301 - IN A BEEHIVE (Honeybees) 302 - IN THE ARCTIC (Heat) 303 - SPINS A WEB (Spiders) 304 - UNDER CONSTRUCTION (Structures) 305 - GETS A BRIGHT IDEA (Light) 306 - SHOWS AND TELLS (Anthropology) 307 - MAKES A RAINBOW (Color) 308 - GOES UPSTREAM (Migration) 309 - WORKS OUT (Circulation) 310 - GETS PLANTED (Photosynthesis) 311 - IN THE RAIN FOREST (Rain Forest Ecology) 312 - ROCKS AND ROLLS (Erosion) 313 - THE FAMILY HOLIDAY SPECIAL (Recycling) Season 4 (1997) 401 - MEETS MOLLY CULE (Molecules) 402 - CRACKS A YOLK (Eggs) 403 - GOES TO MUSSEL BEACH (Tidal Zones) 404 - GOES ON AIR (Air Pressure) 405 - GETS SWAMPED (Wetlands) 406 - GOES CELL-ULAR (Cells) 407 - SEES STARS (Stars) 408 - GAINS WEIGHT (Gravity) 409 - MAKES A STINK (Smell) 410 - GETS CHARGED (Electricity) 411 - GETS PROGRAMMED (Computers) 412 - IN THE CITY (City Critters) 413 - TAKES A DIVE (Coral Reefs and Symbiosis) Credits * Executive Producers: Jane Startz, Kristin Laskas Martin, Alison Blank, Deborah Forte, Robin Grey, Marty Keitz * For Nelvana Ltd: Patrick Loubert, Clive A. Smith, Michael Hirsch * Directed by: Charles E. Bastien, Lawrence Jacobs * Produced by: Hasmi Giakoumis * Supervising Producers: Stephen Hodgins, Kristin Laskas Martin * Coordinating Producers: Patricia R. Burns, Karen Stevens * Associate Producer: Steve Schmer * Assistant Producers: Steve Schmer, John Van Bruggen * Production Designer: Andrew Hickson * Production Manager: Ruta Cube * Production Supervisor: Steve Chadwick * Production Assistants: Mia Katoh, Stephanie Kravos, Carmina Marcial, Caroline Simmons * Unit Manager: Tyler Baylis * Unit Director: Colen Sylvester * Executives in Charge of Production: Marty Keitz, Deborah Forte * Coordinators: Patty Beausoial (design), Asha Damiera (production), Rick Dubiel (pre-production), Bryan Biell (science content), Aidan Closs (layout), Norman Kagan (science research), Erika Strobel (script), Laurie Towals (storyboard) * Assistant Directors: Jocelyn Hamilton, Paul Bouchard, Scott Glynn * Casting Director: Jessie Thomson * Voice Direction: Susan Blu * Storyboard Artists: Alan Bunce, Gerry Chappelle, Jim Caswell, John Flagg, Alex Gatsis, Andrea Robbins, Bob Smith, Andrew Tan * Storyboard Consultant: Yvette Kaplan * Illustrations: Bruce Degan * Layout Artists: Blayne Burnside, Ted Collyer, Suzanne Dargie, Michael Daze, Stefanie Gignac, Brad Graham, Chad Hicks, John Hill, Kevin Klis, John Lei, Jeff Lyons, Mary Lyons, Brad Markewitz, Chris Minz, Mike Nichols, Brian Poeniman, Frank Ramierz, Terry Rotsaert, Rob Sadler, Fred M. Walmot, Alfee Yepp * Layout Supervisor: * Design Supervisor: Andrew Hickson * Designers: Scott Bennett, David Boudreau, Ross Campbell, Trevor Davies, Steve Daye, Kevin Fraser, Brad Goodchild, Joe Gosselin, Niall Johnston, Richard Livingston, Stephen Wood, Steve Manning, Leif Norheim, Derek Prout, Richard Weston * Key Animators: Shane Doyle, Bill Giggle, Dennis Gonzalez, Lynn Reist, Eva Smith, Gerry Fournier, Paul Riley, Alan Knappett, Jan Tillcock * Background Artist: Michael Hitchcox * Lip Sync: Steve Fifth * Timing Directors: Daye Cox, * Color Stylists: Rebecca Barclay, Jennifer Lee, Nasrim Monem * Paint Supervisor: Mary Bertoia * Dialogue Editors: Steve Shelski, Keith Traver * Science Content Coordinators: Bryan Bleil, Norman Kagan * Science Content Director: Michael Templeton * Associate Content Director: Frances Nankin * Voice Recording: Mark DeSimone * Sound Designers: Dow McKeever, Marsha Moore * Supervising Sound Editors: Steven Cole, Mac Holyoke * Re-Recording Mixers: Andy Koyama, Brad Zoern * Music by: Peter Lurye * Theme Song (On the Magic School Bus): written by Peter Lurye, sung by Little Richard * Assistant Editors: David Axelrad * Picture Editors: Richard Bond, Karen Saunders * Assistant Picture Editor: Stephanie Duncan * National Advisory Board: Joel Bloom, Dr. Susan Carey, Dr. Milton Chen, Edward Chittenden, Richard Clark, Dr. Hubert Dyasi, Dr. Jane Butler Kanie, Stephen Schneider, Robert J. Semper, Bonnie Smith, Dorothy Strickland, Ellen Ann Wartella * Special Thanks to: Andrew diSessa, Paul Horwitz, Sandra Jenoure PBS Fundings *National Science Foundation (1994-1997) *Microsoft (1994-1996) (Microsoft Home in Seasons 1 and 2; Microsoft in Season 3) *United States Department of Energy (1994-1996) *The Carnegie Corporation of New York (1994-1997) *Corporation for Public Broadcasting (1994-1996) *"Viewers Like You" (1994-1997) Film the Magic School Bus will film a live-action adaptation. The Bus and Liz was made for computer-generated imagery. the film was directed by Steve 'Spaz' Williams and Thomas McGrath, the director of both Madagascar movies. The film will release in Q4 2012. Amy Adams as the portrayal of Ms. Frizzle and George Lopez as the portrayal of Principal Ruhle. The film title is called The Magic School Bus: Journey to the Center of Pokémon. References Category:The Magic School Bus Category:Children's ITV television programmes Category:1994 television series debuts Category:1997 television series endings Category:1990s American animated television series Category:Children's television series Category:Educational materials Category:Educational television series Category:Fox network shows Category:PBS network shows Category:Fox Kids Category:Television programs based on children's books